How United Nations funding started to fall in 2023

With its global presence and work across most sectors, the United Nations has become the symbol of global development and humanitarian aid efforts. For many years, it has enjoyed widespread budgetary support from its member countries. But even before recent aid cuts from major donors, its finances were declining. The latest financial statistics data from the U.N. System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, CEB, shows that the U.N. suffered its steepest real-term revenue loss in more than a decade. From $77.4 billion in 2022, its income was down 12.6% to $67.6 billion in 2023. This raises a worrying trend, given that the figure precedes a series of aid cuts from some of the U.N.’s leading donors, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France — meaning that in the next two years, the numbers could be a lot worse. In this analysis, we made sense of the U.N.’s latest financial standing by looking into where it gets its money and how it funds development. All of the figures are in 2023 U.S. dollar constant prices. How does the UN get funding? The U.N. system is funded primarily by its member states, either through assessed contributions or voluntary contributions. Assessed contributions are the member countries’ mandatory payments for the U.N. regular budget and peacekeeping operations budgets, or PKOs. How much each country pays is determined by a formula that takes into account the members’ capacity to pay. On the other hand, voluntary contributions are donations to U.N. funds, programs, and specialized agencies. They are given either as earmarked contributions, whose use is determined by the donors themselves, or unearmarked contributions, which the receiving U.N. agencies can use at their own discretion. As we noted in our previous editions, many U.N. agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, rely almost entirely on voluntary contributions. The remaining fraction of income is profit from service provision — particularly in the case of the United Nations Office for Project Services, or UNOPS, whose entire income comes from this revenue source. As mentioned, the U.N. received a total of $67.6 billion in 2023. Of this, 69.1% was voluntary contributions — $41 billion in earmarked contributions and $5.7 billion in unearmarked contributions. Another $13.8 billion was assessed contributions, while the remaining $7 billion was earned income. Who got the most funding — and from whom? Despite a 39.2% reduction from its $15 billion revenue in 2022, the World Food Programme still topped the list of biggest-earning U.N. agencies, with $9.1 billion. Cuts from the U.S. drove this massive drop in WFP’s income. From $7.5 billion in 2022, U.S. contributions more than halved to just $3.1 billion in 2023. WFP’s other leading funders were Germany, with $1.5 billion, the U.K., with $313 million, and Canada, with $305.1 million. UNICEF ranked next, with $8.9 billion, down 16.9% from 2022. Similar to WFP, the revenue loss was due to a 49% reduction from the U.S., its top funder, whose financial support went from $1.9 billion in 2022 to $975.9 million. Among UNICEF’s other top donors were Germany, with $665.1 million, the Netherlands, with $359.7 million, and the U.K., with $300 million. The U.N. Secretariat also received a sizable income, worth $7.5 billion, nearly the same level as the previous year. Its biggest contributors were the U.S., with $953.3 million, Germany, with $535.1 million, and China, with $509.2 million. The United Nations Department of Peace Operations received $7 billion, while UNDP received $5.9 billion. These organizations were the top 5 U.N. agencies, and between them accounted for more than half of the U.N. system’s total income in 2023, worth $38.5 billion. Who are the largest donors to the UN? About 28% of the U.N.’s total revenue from bilateral donors in 2023, worth $13 billion, came from the U.S., whose contribution suffered a 31.2% reduction from the $18.8 billion it spent in the previous year. Germany ranked next among the top bilateral sources, with $5.4 billion. Then Japan, with $2.5 billion, China and the U.K., with $2.3 billion each, and the Netherlands, with $1.8 billion. Among multilaterals, the European Union allocated the largest sum, worth $3.5 billion, 4.2% less than its $3.6 billion contribution in 2022. The World Bank ranked next, with $1.5 billion, followed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, with $1.2 billion. CEB data also mentioned the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs among the top nongovernment donors. Upon research, we found that this refers to the pooled funds managed by UNOCHA via its appeals, which CEB counts as multilateral contributions.. How did the agencies spend the money? The U.N.’s total expenditure slightly went down from $70.2 billion in 2022 to $69 billion in 2023. Based on CEB data, which classifies spending data into four main categories, about 45.3% of the U.N.’s total expenses in 2023, worth $31.2 billion, went to humanitarian assistance. About a third of this, worth $10.3 billion, was spent by WFP, followed by UNICEF, with $5.4 billion, and the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, with $5.3 billion. Another 29.9%, worth $20.6 billion, was spent in development assistance, with nearly a quarter, worth $4.9 billion, from UNDP, followed by UNICEF, with $3.6 billion, and the Food and Agriculture Organization, with $1.7 billion. Another $8.7 billion went to peace operations, and $8.4 billion to the global agenda and specialized assistance. What are the UN’s geographic and sectoral priorities? Afghanistan remains the U.N.’s top recipient country, with $3.2 billion, or 4.7% of the total expenses in 2023. WFP was the top spender in the country, with $902 million, followed by UNICEF, with $797.3 million, and the U.N. Secretariat, with $428.7 million. The other priority countries were South Sudan, with $2.8 billion, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with $2.4 billion each, Yemen, with $2.3 billion, and Ukraine, with $2.2 billion. Aside from the geographical breakdown, CEB data also classifies expenses by their Sustainable Development Goals targets. The data shows that altogether, U.N. agencies spent $12.1 billion on SDG 16 — peace, justice, and strong institutions. Another $11.8 billion was spent on SDG 2 — zero hunger. The other priorities were SDG 3 — good health and well-being — with $9.1 billion, SDG 17 — partnerships for the goals — with $4.8 billion, and SDG 1 — no poverty — with $4.5 billion. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free 5-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.